On Sept. 17, just before 3:30 p.m., the small waiting room of Dr. Nour’s three-room pediatrics clinic in southern Beirut was packed. A mother was waiting to get preschool checkups for her three children. Two elderly patients were booked in for cataract treatments at the ophthalmologist office next door. Sitting next to them was a young couple whom Nour, whose name has been changed for security reasons, had not met before. The father bounced a 10-day-old baby on his lap. Clipped to his belt was a Gold Apollo Rugged Pager.
Nour brought the young couple into her examination room. She pulled out a blank file for the newborn and wrote his name: Aiman. She placed him on the scales: a little over 7 pounds. She lay Aiman on his back on an examination table and began to record his weight. As she did so, the man’s pager beeped twice.
“Excuse me,” he said, and reached down to silence it.
As he did so, about an ounce of explosives concealed within the pager detonated, sending shards of metal and fragments of its thick plastic casing out in all directions. The shrapnel tore deep wounds in the man’s abdomen, lodged in the ceiling of the clinic and lacerated the face of the baby as he lay on his back. Nour was thrown backward as the room filled with dust. She could not see through the smoke, but she could hear the woman’s voice shouting: “Aiman!”
We stop the horrors by placing stipulations on the aid we supply the Israelis. We stop turning a blind eye to how their extreme right wing factions like Netanyahu’s Likud party use our money and military resources. The United States, Europe and most of Asia are against settlements within Palestinian territories but each year right wing politicians allow or even encourage taking over more and more land. Plenty of Israeli citizens are against the settlements and against the Netanyahu regime so let’s work with them to make decisions that aren’t so obviously provocative to both their neighbors as well as the minority Israeli citizens who also live there. Let’s not pretend Netanyahu’s do whatever he pleases policies aren’t a big part of the anger and aggression we are seeing year after year. Our aid and financial support should be 100% conditional.
The reality (sadly) is that because of all the violence a majority of Israelis has given up on a two-state solution. Settlement of the West-Bank has lost internal opposition.
That’s a reality that’s hard to swallow for normal people, but it’s a reality that politicians have to aknowlegde. Outside pressure can slow it down or accelerate it (eg. Trump), but those 500k settlers are never going to move out, not even when the US stops all weapon shipments today. Now, when you’ve accepted that reality the question goes back to do you think the world is better with Israel existing or with Iran winning (and very likely putting a genocide on Israel’s population)?
Saying Israel can’t strike back at Hezbollah like this because “you can’t accept the horrors” is just going make the world worse, as you don’t have a solution for the other side “doing whatever they please” (as in attacking Israel in perpetuity)